Skype opens up to developers

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Internet phone provider Skype will mark its second anniversary
next week by opening up its platform to developers.

Skype chief executive Nikolas Zennström said in a statement
today that anyone who wanted could integrate Skype's presence and
instant messaging services into a website or application.

This would create the largest open instant messaging platform in
the world, he said.

Both the SkypeNet and SkypeWeb Application Programming Interface
would be opened up as part of the Skype Developer Program,

Zennström, a former chief executive of Kazaa and a founder
of Altnet, the first secure peer-to-peer network promoting
commercial content, said opening up the platform to the web would
make it simple for anyone to connect to Skype's member base, which
is now more than 51 million.

"As we enter our third year in business and as the only company
totally focused on global internet communications, we think now is
a perfect time to make these popular features available to anyone
who wants to build community and communications into their website
or applications," Zennström said.

Skype was recently
reported to have been the target of an abortive takeover by
News Corporation. Talks are said to have valued Skype at around
$US3 billion ($A3.9 billion).

Skype is available in 27 languages and has been downloaded
around 150 million times.